Very often a vibraphone student who is working on solo playing will choose to emulate piano players and the basic techniques of solo piano playing, which include right/left hand independence and a contrapuntal, multi-line approach. Gary Burton was one of the first vibes players to adopt this strategy and it has proved to be an exciting and revolutionary way to play the vibes.
In addition to this you may want to also take a look at solo jazz guitar and try to integrate some of that into your solo playing. Listen to the demonstration clip:
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After choosing a song to include in a live performance you’ll want to sketch out a basic arrangement. Here, we’ve chosen the tune Soul Eyes by Mal Waldron. Listen to this version:
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Keep these objectives in mind:
Decide the best strategy for building your solo piece. In this case the melody for Soul Eyes is on beats 4 and 1 for many of the bars. (See lead sheet). It makes sense to place our chords and counter lines on beats 2 and 3. That way we get a nice “conversation” going between the melody and the accompaniment. At the end of a phrase you can vary this and play the melody and chords together. Using a simple method like this will give your arrangement a nice sense of flow and movement.
Be sure the melody is positioned in a good register. In Soul Eyes I play the first 4 bars up and octave so I have more room for my accompaniment. You can always move parts of the melody around to keep them in a good register. If the melody seems generally too low or too high then consider moving the entire tune to another key.
When creating an arrangement for solo vibes try not to work everything out so that you wind up playing it exactly the same way each time. It is tempting to do this, but it can make the piece sound stiff and dull. Sketch out a basic concept for how you want to play the tune, find some voicing shapes that you like for the chords, and leave it at that. Then just play the tune a lot, trying to keep it fresh and inspired. You don’t need to come up with a completely original arrangement each time, but you want it to sound relaxed and a little spontaneous. That will be hard to do if your arrangement is cast in stone. Remember, try to keep it loose!
Playing beautiful 3 and 4 mallet chordal rolls is a goal all vibes and marimba players should work toward. Here is a simple, easy to learn method you can use to play really nice legato rolls for 3 and 4 part chords. Check out the video example: Continue reading 'Special 4-Mallet Skills Part 2'»
Pat Metheny recorded this tune with Gary Burton on a CD titled Reunion. It is also available on my recent CD titled Cerulean Blue.
I’ve included a downloadable leadsheet and an mp3 piano accompaniment for you to use to practice with. Listen to the tune:
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Nacada is a lesser known tune written by Pat Metheny many years ago. I don’t think it has been recorded very much. It has a very short form, a mere 8 bars long. Yet it provides lots to work with when arranged as a solo piece or played with a band.
The mp3 below demonstrates how much fun you can have playing this tune. I added some synthesized string parts in the background as an experiment. They really blend well with the vibes and help to fill out the sound. Continue reading 'Nacada a Ballad by Pat Metheny'»
Bach’s collection of sonatas and partitas are tailor made for vibes. All of these pieces fit within the vibe’s 3 octave range, and many of them are multi-line with 3 and 4 part voicings which sound great on vibes or marimba. In fact, leading classical marimba players such as Leigh Howard Sevens and Gordon Stout have performed the sonatas and partitas in concerts and on recordings.
Lee Morgan, a great jazz trumpeter from the post-bebop period in the 1960s wrote this classic tune. It has a relaxed bossa-nova rhythm, a beautiful (and somewhat intricate melody), and has become a popular jazz standard.
4 Mallet vibes and marimba players face a challenge when attempting to play minor 3rds or half steps with one hand. If the 2 notes include both a natural and an accidental, such as a G and a Bb, it can require a lot of twisting of the wrist to make the 2 mallets in your hand play the notes. It only gets worse if you need to play a half step such as a C and a Db.
There are 2 things you can do to improve your ability to play a note combination like this with one hand. Take a look at the short video which describes the 2 solutions: Continue reading 'Special 4-Mallet Skills Part 1'»
There are a lot of potential solo gigs out there for vibes players at local eateries, cafes, street fairs, etc. Granted they don’t pay much but it is a great opportunity to work on your repertoire and your solo chops.
The problem is most of these gigs are usually around 3 hours long, and that’s a LONG time to play solo. So I always bring along my secret weapon – a sequencer full of piano accompaniments I’ve created. Armed with these accompaniments I’ll play 2 or 3 nice solo pieces then fire up the sequencer and play a good bop tune, a fast blues, or a nice bright samba. I can concentrate on just playing the head without having to worry about filling out background parts. It really breaks up the pace and lets me focus on just the single line for a bit. Adding 2 – 4 “duets” into each set can really perk up the gig. Here’s an example: Continue reading 'Using Technology on Solo Gigs'»
This is one of Bach’s most popular pieces, arranged here for solo vibraphone. It is not a difficult piece to play and provides a nice work-out for your right hand. Check out the video performance below:
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